Food Stories/ Food Traditions/ Snacks/munchies/Quick Bites

Katlu – a traditional recipe for nursing mothers

Katlu is traditional food prepared to supplement the nutritional needs of women during the postnatal period and induce lactation.
India has very rich and diverse food traditions, the women of generations before us have designed some ingenious food traditions for both our regular as well as special needs. I am sure each region has a traditional way of caring and looking after the women in their postpartum period. Katlu is the Gujarati way of nourishing the nursing mothers as well as the infant. This rich preparation made with an exhaustive list of ingredients is a true labour of love. Ghee, kopra (dry coconut), gond, almonds, khus khus and a mix called Batrisu (Batris means 32 in Gujarati) that includes 32 herbs and spices are used liberally in this body warming preparation. Desi Gunder or resin from Babul tree has tremendous healing properties. Believed to warm the body as well as cure postpartum backache, gunder is added in Raab, Sukhdi, Halwa and Milk prepared for nursing mothers. Sooth and Piprimul have body warming properties, while dill seeds, khus khus and dry coconut promote lactation. Ghee raves up metabolism and strengthens bones. All these super and wonder foods come together in Katlu.
Utmost care is taken in preparing these ladoos which are usually made in kilos by mothers and grandmothers for their daughters. Containers full of Katlu arrive on a special day after birth. The family takes care not to return the katlu containers empty. One or two ladoos are intentionally left behind in the katlu carrying dabba/container. Last month I was on a short and sudden trip to Ahmedabad and decided to ask my taiji/kaki/ paternal aunt to share her katlu and Aatho (coming up next) recipes for the blog. She is the one who made several kilos of Katlu and Aatho for me when I was nursing my twin daughters. These are some classic traditions and recipes to be cherished and enjoyed generously. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to enjoy these foods. It brings so much joy to document and share these recipes with you all.

Katlu- ladoo for new mothers

Cooking Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 1 kilogram jaggery, grated
  • 1+1/4 kilograms ghee/clarified butter
  • 1 kilogram whole wheat flour, coarsely ground
  • 2 shells of dry coconut/suka copra ni kachli
  • 100 grams suva dana/dried dill seeds
  • 250 grams edible gum granules/gond/kani walo deshi gunder
  • 250 grams almonds, roughly chopped/sliced
  • 100 grams Katlu powder/ batrisu powder (available at traditional Indian grocery stores)
  • 100 grams peepramul powder/ganthoda powder (dried root powder of Indian long pepper)
  • 100 grams dried ginger powder/sooth
  • 100 grams poppy seeds/khus khus
  • 1 nutmeg, freshly grated

Instructions

1

To begin with make sure you have all your ingredients in place.

2

Prepare the dry coconut by grating one shell and finely chopping the other.

3

Take a large heavy bottom kadai/wok and place it on medium flame.

4

Add all the ghee to the Kadai.

5

Once the ghee melts add the edible gum and fry till it pops up.

6

Remove the fried gum and roughly crush it using back of a flat bowl or pastel.

7

If you like you can fry the roughly chopped almonds in the same ghee. Be careful not to burn it.

8

Now add all the flour to the ghee and fry/roast it until light brown in colour.

9

Keep stirring continuously.

10

You will notice that the ghee-flour mixture has turned light and emits a very pleasant aroma when done.

11

Remove from flame, stirring continuously add the grated jaggery, mix well till the jaggery has completely dissolved.

12

Now add rest of the ingredients including the fried gond one at a time. Mix well after each addition.

13

Begin shaping the mixture in lime or ping-pong ball sized ladoo.

14

Arrange them on a thali and once they cool store in air tight containers.

15

Nursing mothers may eat 2-3 ladoo in a day.

Notes

If you do not have time on hand and don't wish to make ladoos, spread the mix in greased thalis/pan like you would spread fudge mix. Once the mix begins to set cut them in squares and store in air tight container.

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25 Comments

  • Reply
    Hemu Aggarwal
    May 24, 2019 at 4:02 am

    This is a fabulous treasure which I found accidentally. The information given here are rare and extremely useful. I reside in U.S.A. and has always tried to find the richness and effectiveness in Indian herbs, spices, and recipes like this Katlu. Great work.

    • Reply
      Sheetal
      June 8, 2019 at 9:00 am

      Hemuben, thank you for stopping by and such encouraing feed back. The rich tapestry of our regional cuisines is underappreciated, it is time we value it .

    • Reply
      Prati
      January 6, 2020 at 12:48 pm

      Loved reading your blog. I was researching about Kaatlu and your blog popped up. So glad I found your website 🙂

      • Reply
        Sheetal
        January 17, 2020 at 8:22 am

        Hello Prati,

        Glad the blog showed up. Katlu has been a much loved recipe on the blog. Thank you so much for writing in. Hope you keep enjoying the space.

  • Reply
    Smita-Thaker
    July 5, 2019 at 12:36 am

    A very useful blog

    • Reply
      Sheetal
      July 8, 2019 at 4:11 pm

      Thank you Smita.

  • Reply
    Afroz Giblett
    September 11, 2019 at 12:59 am

    Hello Sheetal

    Wonderful blog! my mother used to make the batrisu powder at home and I have often wondered what the ingredients are translated into english. Do you happen to have the complete list of the 32 Ingredients? if you do have it can you please share it.

    Thank you so much
    Afroz

    • Reply
      Sheetal
      October 10, 2019 at 6:59 am

      Hey Afroz,

      Thank you so much. Yes Batrisu is a very popular winter masala. Goes in most winter pak and fudge we make. These days a premixed powder is readily available at the shops selling traditional herbs. Will do a blog post for it for sure, along with the list of 32 herbs and spices that go in it.

      Regards,

      Sheetal

  • Reply
    Dina
    September 12, 2019 at 7:15 pm

    I was looking for a katlu recipe for my daughter and accidentally found this one. I am going to go with your recipe as so far this is so simple to follow.

    • Reply
      Sheetal
      October 10, 2019 at 6:56 am

      Yes, it is a pretty simple recipe once the ingredients are in place. Hope you tried it and your daughter loved it!! Thank you for stopping by.

  • Reply
    Soniya
    November 10, 2019 at 3:32 pm

    Sheetal thanks for this wonderful recipe. I delivered my baby few days ago and was looking for Batrisu benefits and came across ur site!! Am definitely going to add this to my diet😊

  • Reply
    Kali
    February 16, 2020 at 1:42 am

    Hello, how can I make this recipe without wheat flour? It needs to be gluten free.

    • Reply
      Sheetal
      February 16, 2020 at 9:12 pm

      Hey,

      you can try mix of bajra and jowar flours. If you are staying outside India try it with Gluten free flour mix. However, I am not sure about the change in its medicinal properties when the flour is changed to GF.

  • Reply
    Nina
    August 15, 2020 at 9:33 pm

    Hello Sheetal
    Love your traditional recipes .
    What if the katlu does not set and is crumbly? How do I fix it? Thank you

    • Reply
      Sheetal
      August 22, 2020 at 6:17 am

      Hello Nina,

      Set it as Sukhdi, I don’t see any issues in its setting if you have followed this recipe to the T. Yes, it does take a while to shape it as laddoo but it comes together well.

  • Reply
    neily hemnani
    August 24, 2020 at 6:52 pm

    Hu ghana time thi katlu ni recipe shodhi rahi hati. Thanks to you sheetal ke mane aa recipe mali.
    Veri nice recipe.
    God bless you and your family sheetal.

  • Reply
    Our Breastfeeding Journey - Swati Vijayan
    September 18, 2020 at 5:02 pm

    […] I loved eating gondh laddoos after my delivery. It is called Katlu in Gujrati. Even though I felt they were a tad heavy on my stomach, I loved how nutritious the laddoos were. Those laddoos were a blessing during the midnight / early morning hunger pangs. My mother-in-law got it made for me from Baroda and they tasted so good. A similar recipe is here. […]

  • Reply
    Krish
    December 14, 2020 at 2:58 pm

    Are there any other names for Katlu?

    • Reply
      Sheetal
      December 17, 2020 at 2:42 pm

      Not really, some winter warming foods are also called Katlu.

  • Reply
    Shairoz Rupani
    June 26, 2023 at 11:41 pm

    How long should a mother eat the katlu for?

    • Reply
      Sheetal
      June 27, 2023 at 6:58 am

      As long as you would wish to, I was nursing twins and had them till a year. They make very good energy food so no harm in eating them even if you are not brestfeeding.

  • Reply
    Chaya
    May 7, 2024 at 8:30 pm

    I am a U.S- based lactation consultant–for someone who is not familiar with Indian foods, can we know the U.S. names of some of the items listed? I work with many moms from India and have several Indian groceries near me, I grow many plants, some of which are from India in my U.S. garden!

    • Reply
      Sheetal
      May 11, 2024 at 4:35 pm

      Hello Chaya,

      Thank you for your interest in this recipe. While most of the ingredients were listed with their English names, have included the same for the one that remained. Hope this helps.

  • Reply
    Dimple shah
    June 22, 2024 at 7:56 pm

    Hello I am just confused about jaggery quantity in yr katlu recipe as these much of ingredients other than flour added . Shouldn’t they require more jaggery? Than normal sukhdi?

    • Reply
      Sheetal
      June 22, 2024 at 9:11 pm

      Nope, this is perfect. It should not be very sweet.

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